More Flake Photos

Who own's America's economy?

Tom Toles
Friday, January 18, 2008
Washington Post

A tourist walks into a curio shop in San Francisco. Looking around at the exotic things, he notices a very lifelike, life-sized bronze statue of a rat. It has no price tag, but is so striking he decides he must have it. He takes it to the owner and asks: “How much for the bronze rat?” “$12.00 for the rat, $100.00 for the story,” said the owner.

The tourist gave the man $12.00. “I’ll just take the rat. You can keep the story.” As he walked down the street carrying the bronze rat, he noticed that a few real rats had crawled out of the alleys and sewers and had begun to follow him down the street. This was disconcerting and he began to walk faster. But within a couple of blocks the herd of rats behind him had grown to hundreds, and they began squealing.

He began to trot toward the Bay, looking around to see that the rats now numbered MILLIONS, and were squealing and coming towards him faster and faster. Concerned, even scared, he ran to the edge of the Bay and threw the bronze rat as far out into the Bay as he could.

Amazingly the millions of rats all jumped into the Bay and were all drowned!

The man hurried back to the curio shop. “Ah ha,” said the owner. “You have come back for the story?”

“No,” said the man, “I came back to see if you had a bronze Republican.”

— Posted by Menelek

Flake the PB

The bear, which lives at Nuremberg City Zoo, will be known as "Flocke," which in German means "flake."

Weekend in NYC

Time with friends and relatives, excursions to Achilles, Fishes Eddy, and Korean restaurants. Topped with a Hillary '08 Rally near FIT. Starbucks and 30 Rock surrounded by The Office bobbleheads. Too bad I was so excited in Mood, that I couldn't get my camera to work. New York! New York! Yes to bling! Hello Kitty. Hello Moo-bling the cow. The Bentley Hotel on the 20th floor over looking the East River. Cuban and Japanese restaurants. Move theaters and movies. Thumbs up for Juno. The critics can have There will be Blood. Charlie Wilson's war. Vintage stores. Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.

Go! Gloria!

January 8, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
Women Are Never Front-Runners
By GLORIA STEINEM
www.nytimes.com

THE woman in question became a lawyer after some years as a community organizer, married a corporate lawyer and is the mother of two little girls, ages 9 and 6. Herself the daughter of a white American mother and a black African father — in this race-conscious country, she is considered black — she served as a state legislator for eight years, and became an inspirational voice for national unity.

Be honest: Do you think this is the biography of someone who could be elected to the United States Senate? After less than one term there, do you believe she could be a viable candidate to head the most powerful nation on earth?

If you answered no to either question, you’re not alone. Gender is probably the most restricting force in American life, whether the question is who must be in the kitchen or who could be in the White House. This country is way down the list of countries electing women and, according to one study, it polarizes gender roles more than the average democracy.

That’s why the Iowa primary was following our historical pattern of making change. Black men were given the vote a half-century before women of any race were allowed to mark a ballot, and generally have ascended to positions of power, from the military to the boardroom, before any women (with the possible exception of obedient family members in the latter).

If the lawyer described above had been just as charismatic but named, say, Achola Obama instead of Barack Obama, her goose would have been cooked long ago. Indeed, neither she nor Hillary Clinton could have used Mr. Obama’s public style — or Bill Clinton’s either — without being considered too emotional by Washington pundits.

So why is the sex barrier not taken as seriously as the racial one? The reasons are as pervasive as the air we breathe: because sexism is still confused with nature as racism once was; because anything that affects males is seen as more serious than anything that affects “only” the female half of the human race; because children are still raised mostly by women (to put it mildly) so men especially tend to feel they are regressing to childhood when dealing with a powerful woman; because racism stereotyped black men as more “masculine” for so long that some white men find their presence to be masculinity-affirming (as long as there aren’t too many of them); and because there is still no “right” way to be a woman in public power without being considered a you-know-what.

I’m not advocating a competition for who has it toughest. The caste systems of sex and race are interdependent and can only be uprooted together. That’s why Senators Clinton and Obama have to be careful not to let a healthy debate turn into the kind of hostility that the news media love. Both will need a coalition of outsiders to win a general election. The abolition and suffrage movements progressed when united and were damaged by division; we should remember that.

I’m supporting Senator Clinton because like Senator Obama she has community organizing experience, but she also has more years in the Senate, an unprecedented eight years of on-the-job training in the White House, no masculinity to prove, the potential to tap a huge reservoir of this country’s talent by her example, and now even the courage to break the no-tears rule. I’m not opposing Mr. Obama; if he’s the nominee, I’ll volunteer. Indeed, if you look at votes during their two-year overlap in the Senate, they were the same more than 90 percent of the time. Besides, to clean up the mess left by President Bush, we may need two terms of President Clinton and two of President Obama.

But what worries me is that he is seen as unifying by his race while she is seen as divisive by her sex.

What worries me is that she is accused of “playing the gender card” when citing the old boys’ club, while he is seen as unifying by citing civil rights confrontations.

What worries me is that male Iowa voters were seen as gender-free when supporting their own, while female voters were seen as biased if they did and disloyal if they didn’t.

What worries me is that reporters ignore Mr. Obama’s dependence on the old — for instance, the frequent campaign comparisons to John F. Kennedy — while not challenging the slander that her progressive policies are part of the Washington status quo.

What worries me is that some women, perhaps especially younger ones, hope to deny or escape the sexual caste system; thus Iowa women over 50 and 60, who disproportionately supported Senator Clinton, proved once again that women are the one group that grows more radical with age.

This country can no longer afford to choose our leaders from a talent pool limited by sex, race, money, powerful fathers and paper degrees. It’s time to take equal pride in breaking all the barriers. We have to be able to say: “I’m supporting her because she’ll be a great president and because she’s a woman.”

Correction: An earlier version of this Op-Ed stated that Senator Edward Kennedy had endorsed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. He has not made an endorsement in the 2008 presidential race.

Gma with Stef

Weird Wedding

Grandpa

Parkside to present retrospective on Vasy

Kenosha - The University of Wisconsin-Parkside, 900 Wood Road, will present a retrospective on the life and art of alumnus Steve Vasy during October in the Communication Arts Gallery.

Titled "Steve's Show," the exhibit will feature a wide range of prints and sculptures created by Vasy, along with examples of the processes he used to create the artwork.

The exhibition will begin with a reception from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 6. Regular gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The show and reception are both open to the public.

From www.jsonline.com

Racine County Entertainment

From the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Sept. 29, 2002

Stimmung Stunde

Myla DalBesio appearance on Stimmung Stunde

krak!

Fingered Dvdzine Releases ‘Winter/Spring 2007 Issue’ Featuring Erase Errata and fellow Bay Area Acts and Artists

Opening with a kinetic video capturing Erase Errata’s performance of their song, “Another Genius Idea from Our Government,” the second offering from Fingered Dvdzine seeks to focus attention on the activities of the ever-fertile artistic community in the San Francisco Bay Area. A video tour diary put together from self-shot footage from their 2003-04 U.S. and European tour, gives a candid, and often hilarious glimpse at Erase Errata’s original four on and offstage. The disc also features performances by the band’s friends and cohorts Fuckwolf, Black Fiction, Clipd Beaks, and Tussle, who, like E.E. have undergone recent line-up shuffling and a revamped sound. Along with the band videos, the dvdzine presents the work of visual artists Olivia Park, Joe Roberts (aka Krak!), and Clipd Beaks bandmates, Nic Barbeln and Greg Prichard.

Fingered Dvdzine provides a unique look at leading creative voices and a medium for new and emerging artists in their hometown to reach out to audiences around the world. The previous issue documented the artistic output coming from Brooklyn, New York, highlighting such bands as Excepter, Mazing Vids, and Telepathe. Fingered will move beyond U.S. borders with the Mexico City issue next summer, followed by Montreal early next year.

SFBG online and chili dog farmer

Rock's black back pages

Black Fiction take us for a Ride

By K. Tighe

a&eletters@sfbg.com

Tim Cohen sits at a table cutting up playing cards.

The Black Fiction vocalist-guitarist-songwriter has convinced himself that the meaty torsos of every jack, queen, and king are spelling out something big. He flings the disembodied heads into a pile and arranges the stately bodies to spell out Black Fiction Ghost Ride. Across the table keyboardist Joe Roberts is gathering the heads. Arranging the sovereign noggins into a gruesome and fantastical pile, Roberts sketches out the story: it is Raphael the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle who has cut off these heads, and he stands over his trophies, his sais dripping red. Ghost Ride (Howells Transmitter), the debut from San Francisco's Black Fiction, wins points for whimsically macabre album art.

They've been called everything from "the Arcade Fire on a peyote-laced vision quest" (FlavorPill SF) to "pop music for little kids on acid" (an audience member). It seems that Black Fiction are simply too wriggly to rest under any thumb or umbrella. Online reviewers are drowning in genre jargon — psych-soul, freak folk — and struggling to wrap reason around the light that Ghost Ride emits.

I caught up with Cohen on his lunch break from Amoeba Music in San Francisco to get his take on the response. "I'd hate for someone to have an idea of what they are going to hear and not be open to us sounding like something else," he said. In one sweeping sentence Cohen nailed it. Black Fiction is "something else." Or to make it snarky, if you please, "else-fi." The plain truth is that it is difficult to speak for this album because it speaks so loudly for itself — though it may be speaking in tongues.

The apocalyptic "Great Mystery" plucks, bounces, and drags at once, ripening with lyrical delicacies like "Farmers in the fields will grow the world's weight in corn/ We will cream it for the babies that have yet to be born/ We will leave it in the sewers for the rats and the worms/ We will store it in the cupboards for the coming storm."

"Carry Him Away" feels as urgent and hopeless as rushing into a tidal wave before it slams down on top of you. The harmonica- and glockenspiel-laced tune taunts with the invasively ironic refrain of "music is a terrible thing." The phrase might not be so tongue-in-cheek, considering that Cohen, Black Fiction's primary songwriter, has some reservations about music industry conventions.

For starters, the notorious multi-instrumentalist has a flimsy history of formal musical training. "Basically, if I can figure out how to make a sound on an instrument, I can figure out how to play it," Cohen explained before deadpanning, "I can play the recorder as well as any eight-year-old." Conservatory learning isn't the only grain Cohen is going against. October will bring a minitour stretching over parts of California, but the year-old band — which includes percussionists Jon Bernson and Jason Chavez, multi-instrumentalist Anthony Marin, and bassist Evan Martin — is being patient about planning a longer route. "If we are going to tour, we want to do it right," said the bandleader. "You need to know about the evils of the industry and guard yourself from them. I have a lot of apprehensions about asking people to help us out — I don't do a lot of schmoozing. I'm a musician at heart, and that's all I want to do."

The tracks of Ghost Ride were painstakingly recorded on a Tascam 388, a reel-to-reel eight-track. The idea was borrowed from local songwriter Kelley Stoltz, who recorded Antique Glow on the same machine. The 388 is unique because it is essentially an entire sound console complete with EQ built into an easily transportable recorder. "I appreciate the qualities of analog recording over digital," Cohen explained. "Digital recording isn't as challenging — you can just cut and paste your stuff together." As I upload the tracks of Ghost Ride into the inner sanctum of my iPod mini, my cheeks begin to sweat a bitter taste of shame — I can only ascribe it to the way an amateur wine connoisseur must feel after plopping a few ice cubes into a well-crafted sauvignon blanc.

Live, Black Fiction take the form of a whirling dervish minstrel show. Intensely cerebral and bubbling over with epileptic grace, the album projects a whimsical playfulness in full force onstage. They will melt off your musical preconceptions. You will run to the merchandise stand to buy this album.

They toppled Noise Poppers last year like a house of vandalized playing cards, leaving the audience with the same "what the hell just happened?" epiphany that early Velvet Underground and Talking Heads audiences must have felt. Black Fiction are laying down some new bricks. I can't wait to see where they lead. SFBG

BLACK FICTION

With Tussle and the Dry Spells

Sat/26, 9 p.m.

Cafe du Nord

2170 Market, SF

$10

(415) 861-5016

www.blackfictionband.com

Tuesday August 22, 2006

Dorm Rooms in the Age of Innocence

September 5, 1999

The Way We Live Now: 9-5-99: Salient Facts, Student Housing; Luxury 101

By JULIAN E. BARNES

THE BASICS
For decades the design trend in college dormitories could be summed up in one word: cheap. In the 1960's, when the Federal Government subsidized dorm construction, some frugal universities even bolted the furniture to the floor in order to write it off as part of the building's infrastructure. But in recent years that trend has reversed itself, led by cash-rich universities in search of a competitive advantage. At the head of this class is Boston University, which is now building a superdorm at a cost of $100,000 per student, double the national average. The glass-and-steel tower looks less like a rooming house than a sleek yuppie condo, with sweeping views of the Charles River and the Boston skyline. All bedrooms are private, sharing carpeted suites and genuine kitchens -- adult-size fridges, built-in microwaves, garbage disposals, the works. Over the river in Cambridge, M.I.T., concerned about the well-being of students living in unsupervised housing, has commissioned a new dorm from the avant-garde architect Stephen Holl. Currently under construction, it will have pocket parks, a rainwater fountain, suicide-preventing windows (they open only 45 degrees) and solar-powered fans that blow air down light shafts. ''The building has lungs,'' Holl says. ''It breathes.''

THE EXTRAS
Some urban schools have sought to overcome their lack of grassy expanses by loading as many campuslike amenities into the dormitories as possible. In the fall of 2001, N.Y.U. will unveil a $95 million 16-story tower just east of Union Square Park. The third in a series of lavish new dorms, it will house a recreation center with more than 100 state-of-the-art exercise machines, a mirrored dance studio with a maple suspension floor, a pool, a gymnasium, a juice bar and a two-and-a-half-story $100,000 climbing wall. All the food at the in-house cafeteria will be cooked to order. Kevin Roche, the architect, admits that his own dorm tastes run to ''a spare room with an exposed bulb,'' but is well aware of the demands of the marketplace. ''Parents want to be satisfied that their loved ones are well cared for,'' Roche says. As for the students, some take the long view. ''It's nice to look at, but I know people who have left school because of financial reasons,'' says Camile Gayle, a senior from Florida. ''I'd much rather see the money going to scholarships than the fancy-schmancy stuff.''

THE PERSONAL TOUCHES
At the same time, other schools are phasing out TV lounges, game rooms and study areas because students bring so much of their own equipment (from stereos and TV's to powerful computers, scanners, color printers, fax machines and satellite dishes) that there's dwindling demand for shared facilities. Instead, colleges focus on putting in a lot of new electrical outlets -- as many as four times what older dormitories had -- not to mention extra data jacks and cable TV plugs. But after spending all this money on new dorms, universities are less tolerant than ever of students applying their own quirky home-design visions to their rooms. Melinda Roberts, a Yale senior, used lots of green paint, plants, wall hangings and stuffed monkeys to transform her dorm room last year into ''a jungle room.'' She's disappointed by this year's digs: a brand-new suite with private kitchen and bathroom. ''In the new dorm you can't paint the walls and you can't bring furniture -- it is all supplied,'' she says. ''All the rooms are identical. It will be a challenge to make it livable.''

SAFE AND SOUND
In keeping with the larger societal trend, colleges have been vigilantly cracking down on crime. Often, this has simply meant more surveillance cameras and guards. But U.C.L.A., seeking less intrusive methods, is constructing a new dormitory along the principles of ''defensible space'' -- small villagelike clusters of dorms (rather than impersonal high-rises), with highly visible public areas and doormen rather than security guards. ''The way in which the space is designed allows self-policing,'' says Charles W. Oakley, the campus architect. Other schools are experimenting with higher-tech security devices. In N.Y.U.'s new dorms, for example, students gain admission to the building by placing their hands against an optical scanner that takes 96 measurements and checks them against a database. On a couple of campuses in the South, students are opting for a Walkmate, a beeper-size device with three panic buttons to contact university police officers and alert them to any of the student's pre-existing medical conditions ($54.95 a semester, plus a $25 activation fee). ''My dad has given me dorm alarms, stun gun, pepper spray, mace,'' says Elizabeth L. Logan, a University of South Florida student who has signed up for the Walkmate service. ''I am not paranoid. But I think my dad is.''

• Copyright 2007 The New York Times

Stroke Inspiration - 4 years ago

Stroke changes others' perceptions

By JAMAAL ABDUL-ALIM
jabdul-alim@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Nov. 9, 2003

It came out of nowhere.

Michael had been in his bedroom doing his daily yoga routine when it struck. It knocked him to the floor.

He reached for the dresser to pull himself up but wound up pulling the dresser drawers down on his body.

When his wife, Linda, arrived home, she didn't know what to think.

She immediately dialed 911.

"They said, 'It looks like he had a stroke,' " she recalled.

The paramedics were right.

Michael, suffered an attack on the right side of his brain that reduced the former University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee librarian to a left-hemiplegic.

That day, Dec. 16, 1999, forever changed Michael's life and the lives of his wife and three children.

And the way he is seen.

Based on what they have been through, Michael's family can easily spot other stroke survivors.

They can tell who suffered a stroke based on the person's slowed gait. Or the way the person talks. Or maybe the way the person's fist will be clenched the way Michael's fist is clenched - one of the telltale signs that the person has suffered a stroke.

To put it simply, the stroke that Michael suffered has made his family more aware of what strokes are and the damage they do.

Rasing awareness

Awareness of strokes is what Michael's wife and his daughter, Allegra are trying to raise.

They are also training and raising money to do so. And, in January, Linda and Allegra are going to fly and run to raise awareness of strokes.

Specifically, the two women are going to board an airplane and fly to Hamilton, Bermuda, for the Jan. 18 Bermuda Marathon as part of the "Train To End Stroke" program. They've been in training since the summer, when the American Stroke Association sent Michael a letter about the event.

At first, he thought the American Stroke Association wanted him to participate in the marathon.

"I said, 'Maybe I could walk 13 miles,' " he said. But he entertained the notion for only about two seconds.

The family ultimately realized the letter was directed at them. Linda and Allegra thought about it and concluded they should fly to Bermuda to run in the marathon.

They've been training for the marathon ever since.

Michael would like to return to his job as a librarian. He has a master's degree in library and information science. He also has a master's degree in creative writing.

Fortunately, the stroke didn't take away his ability to communicate and write. Or to learn more about the Oneida language that his ancestors spoke.

Overcame the odds

There was a time, though, when his future didn't look too bright. One neurologist, Linda says, predicted that her husband would be virtually blind and would never walk again.

His vision was blurry for a while. But today Michael can see. As a matter of fact, he finds books at the library faster than the average person.

If you need proof, consider all the library books in his living room that he checked out from a local library.

His family still sends him to the library to find books.

"He's the family librarian," Allegra says.

But even though Michael can still get around and talk and write and find library books, which is about all you could expect from a librarian, no one will hire him, the family complains, even though he has the credentials.

"He's incredibly qualified," Linda says.

Michael counts among his many accomplishments his design of the library at the Indian Community School.

His family says his job hunting goes well until the interview takes place. But once prospective employers meet Michael, rejection letters never fail to follow, Linda says.

That's part of the reason why Linda and Allegra are flying to Bermuda to run a marathon and raise stroke awareness.

They want to see society devote more resources for research on strokes. And they want people to accept Michael and all the other stroke survivors of the world for who they are.

"When strokes happen to people, their lives shouldn't be over," Linda says. "We should still value them."

She wants people to treat her husband the way they would want to be treated if they had suffered a stroke.

The possibility that anyone could suffer is a stroke is very real.

With Michael, for instance, there was no presence of risk factors, such as high blood pressure or old age, or a history of strokes.

"Every 45 seconds," according to the American Stroke Association's Web site, "someone in America has a stroke.

"Every 3.1 minutes," the Web site says, "someone dies of one."

You could meditate on those figures if you want. Or, you could simply come to understand, as Linda says: "You never know when it could happen to you."

Or, as Michael says now that he is among America's stroke survivors: "You realize how fragile and vulnerable you are."